BWF leverages partnerships with leading nonprofits, corporations, the military and the government to find, fund and shape programs that meet the emerging and long-term needs of today’s veterans and their families.

BWF is led by a distinguished group of leaders from diverse areas of influence, including defense, media, healthcare, philanthropy, business and government. A small and agile staff carries out the strategic vision of the Foundation and its Founders. Get to know us.

As a 501(c)(3) public charity, the Bob Woodruff Foundation relies upon the support of generous donors to fulfill its mission, and holds itself to the highest standards of transparency and accountability. Read More.

Ongoing Initiatives

The National Veterans Intermediary is for communities that collaborate or want to collaborate more effectively to serve all military, veterans, their families and caregivers across the country. Learn More.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation is proud to partner with best-in-class scientific organizations to provide important research findings to the community of organizations that represent and serve post-9/11 veterans, service members, families, and caregivers. Learn More.

BWF partners with community and national programs, organizations and the military community to create healthy, positive futures for our service members, veterans and their families. Take a #Stand4Heroes.

Program Partners

The Bob Woodruff Foundation partners with innovative nonprofits to find, fund and shape programs across the nation that best meet the emerging and long-term needs of today’s veterans and their families.

Beyond awarding grants to these partners, the Bob Woodruff Foundation works closely with them to ensure efficiency, gain awareness for evolving trends within the veteran space, and provide opportunities for collaboration with other members of the grantee network.

Veterans emerge from the military as highly adaptable team-leaders with technical skills, and problem-solving capabilities accustomed to making decisions under stressful conditions. The right educational supports and access to top-tier universities, can help ensure they become the next generation of civic and business leaders. However, one-third of veterans are first-generation college students who lack the confidence and savvy to navigate higher education with informed choices. Instead, approximately 40 percent of GI Bill tuition payments go to for-profit institutions, and the top eight recipients of GI Bill taxpayer dollars are for-profit colleges. Warrior-Scholar Project introduces veterans to esteemed higher-level academics, ensures they are informed academic consumers, and provides them with academic skills critical for confidence and success. Their community college programming teaches skills to make a successful transition into the classroom and summer programming introduces student veterans to academic life at top tier universities.

Team Red, White & Blue

Reintegrating into civilian life can be challenging for some post-9/11 veterans. Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB) believes the best way to support these veterans is to spend time with them; interact with them in personal, meaningful ways; and connect them to their communities through exercise and social activities. Team RWB focuses on exercise and social activities that, over time, become part of a healthy lifestyle and will facilitate an authentic interaction with community residents. Through its grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Team RWB will build out its Eagle Leadership Development program to develop and strengthen local chapter leaders and thus partnerships and military-civilian relationships, in over 200 communities nationwide.

Sesame Workshop

The approximately 1.1 million caregivers for post-9/11 service members and veterans are strikingly different from most caregivers, who predominantly serve elderly spouses and family members. The post-9/11 caregivers are often young themselves, are more likely to be caring for a child or a spouse in a relatively young marriage and may be providing that care for a young veteran with multiple challenges, to include TBI and other physical injuries, PTSD, and limited employment or educational options. However, we know little about the impact of family caregiving on children’s well-being; little research and few resources exist to support these children. SS4MF: Caregiving addresses the impact of caregiving and provides guidance and support for military and veteran families with young children (ages 2-8) to help them cope and build resilience while dealing with the challenges of living with a wounded, ill, or injured parent. Following initial BWF funding to identify and develop this curriculum, this grant supported Sesame Workshop’s creation of valuable resources for military families addressing three fundamental themes and strategies: Comfort and Strength, Sharing and Talking, and Routines. You can access these resources here: https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/topics/family-caregiving/.

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

The South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resilience, or STRONG STAR, is a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research consortium funded by U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and evaluate the most effective early interventions possible for the detection, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions in military service members and recently discharged veterans. The STRONG STAR Texas Training Initiative launched in 2017 through a grant from the Texas Health and Human Services through its Texas Veterans + Family Alliance Grant Program and a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation. With funding from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, STRONG STAR gained support to expand the Training Initiative from Texas to Nationwide. The Training Initiative trains mental health professionals in Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), evidence-based treatments (EBT) for PTSD, and provides consultation for supervision. The most recent BWF to STRONG STAR grant builds on the current STRONG STAR Training Initiative infrastructure by working on innovative strategies to incentivize the delivery of EBT for PTSD to veteran patients and connect veterans with care providers offering EBT.